Mass Effect: The Shepard
by Archodus Vaxal
Summary: Oneshot(s). Post-Control Ending, two and a half years after the end of the Reaper War. Everything explained in beginning Authors' Note. (First "Chapter"): The progeny of Commander Shepard - an AI made to be a facsimile of the Human Spectres' mind, soul, memories, and thoughts - reminisces on the events leading up to the present, and plans for the future.
1. The Shepard

**Greetings my friends, and fellow "Controllers". This short story- this Oneshot can be considered many things. A tribute, an appeal, an example, a template. For, you see, I _love_ the Control Ending for Mass Effect 3. I have _absolutely_ _no idea_ why everyone's so bloody enamored with the Destroy Ending. What?- _just_ because Shepard has a _chance_ of surviving? Alright, look- here's a reality check. Shepards' death was something that we _all should've been expecting_! It's the end of the trilogy, the main character is _bound_ to either die in the interest of the greater good, or he's to fall in battle early on and become a tragic figure. The fact that we, as fans of the franchise got three other choices is, quite frankly, amazing. In any case, I made this Oneshot - "The Shepard" - because I wanted to paint the ideal ****picture- the ideal setting for a galaxy that truly _benefitted_ from the Reaper War. A galaxy in which the Commander could _truly become "THE SHEPHERD"_! I wanted to present my vision for what the galaxy would become after a "Paragon Control" scenario. I wanted to give people a stage in which an entirely new adventure could begin. A template. An advertisement to try and get more people onto the "Control boat". That said, if my vision for the Mass Effect universe post Reaper War succeeds in catching the interest of any of you, and you want to use it as a stage for writing a whole new plot: then be my _bloody_ guest. The problem with a lot of people on Fanfiction is that they always stick _way too_ close to what the games show us- they never try to imagine new scenarios, new stories. No, they all just rewrite the same thing we've all seen, heard, and read before. As Soleneus puts it, "the tagline is 'unleash your imagination', so _why don't you_?!". If enough people know me well enough by now, then they'll know that I try to stick to the canon as closely as humanly possible. And, thusly…**

 **"The Shepard" _could_ be considered canon, assuming the following took place...**

 **Spared the last Rachni Queen.**

 **Wrex survived Virmire.**

 **Saved Ashley on Virmire.**

 **Saved the Council.**

 **Chose to rewrite the Geth Heretics.**

 **Destroyed the Collector Base.**

 **Survived Suicide Mission with all twelve squad mates.**

 **Genophage was cured, with Mordins' death.**

 **Peace brokered between the Quarians and Geth.**

 **Galactic Readiness maxed out before the final battle.**

 **Romances are purposefully omitted. If anyone wants to tweak or change any of these details when they write their own fics based off of the picture presented here, they can.**

 **Without further delay, I present to you, my fellow Controllers: "The Shepard"...**

* * *

 _ **"The Shepard"**_

 _…or is it "Shepherd", now?_

An area that had only been walked by one person in the entirety of galactic history, that provided an cinematic view of Earths' surface, was empty and devoid of movement and sound. After all, this particular area was one that remained completely unheard of- no schematics of the citadels' structure suggested this place even existed.. There was no easy or well-known way to get to it, and it wasn't as if anybody in their right mind would think to try. But, despite all of that, this place- this peaceful, secluded, roughly t-shaped platform, was the place in which the galaxys' fate had been decided- a place… where a truly _great_ man had sacrificed _everything_ he had… in order to become the one who could save the many.

Though, the vast majority of the galaxys' population would never know this- the man had been alone at the time and no official record of what took place on this secluded alcove had ever been taken. Besides, at the time which this event happened, what _one_ Human was doing in some unknown part of the Citadel wasn't what took priority in a lot of peoples' thoughts. Back then, the greatest concern of anyones' was that of the Reaper War. And the Reapers.

Of course, the Reaper War had ended over two and a half years ago- most had either forgotten about the conflict amidst the monotony of their daily lives, or were on alert in case the Reapers ever came back. Not that that would actually be something to be concerned about, in the case of the Reapers' possible return.

A hologram of a six foot Human in N7 armor materialized out of thin air, and appeared to stare out at the view of Earth in thought. While the A.I _was_ enjoying the rather spectacular view, it was also keeping tabs on and observing over a dozen _other_ situations and events simultaneously- some of them happening light years away.

This hologram- this _wraith_ , was The Alpha-Catalyst, also known as The Citadel. Well… those actually weren't _exactly_ accurate- while he _was_ an A.I _,_ and he ostensively _inhabited_ the infrastructure of the Citadel, he himself wasn't the millennia-old space station… nor was he really a "catalyst", per say. A "catalyst", by its' very definition, was something that caused, or sparked a reaction, or chain of events. But, while the moniker _was_ coined in false pretenses, that was still what this A.I could be referred to.

If _anyone_ or _anything_ was a "catalyst"… it was Commander Shepard. And besides, the A.I wasn't the _first_ "Catalyst", or "Citadel" to exist and/or live here… A second hologram appeared just behind and to the left of the first, this one smaller, only four feet tall. It took the appearance of an eight-year-old Human boy, in a hoodie. Of course… that meant that the _old_ resident was still around, even if its' role was slightly different.

The armored man, briefly glanced back at the other A.I, before shaking his head chidingly and turned back to his vigil.

"I really wish you would stop choosing that form", the ghost of Commander Shepard said, referencing the sheer distastefulness of the others' choice in appearance. "And don't give me that 'my appearance is drawn from your memories'-crap because that's just plain incorrect and invasive".

While the new Alpha-Catalyst couldn't _really_ be called "Shepard", it seemed that the new A.I had still adopted the dead Humans' attitude.

The "Starchild" only raised an eyebrow, "would you rather I look like a Husk, Variant? Or like Sovereign?", he asked dryly, with a voice that sounded entirely too loud, yet young, for its' stature. Especially considering that the entity was _literally_ at least a billion years old.

The taller A.I simply shrugged, "I was thinking more along the lines of a Prothean, but I don't really care as long as you stop using _that_ look", he said, not looking behind him.

Not responding, but obliging anyway, the Starchild disappeared briefly, before _re_ appearing, taking the form of an ethereal Awakened Collector. Sensing the change and turning to see it, the Alpha-Catalyst only scoffed at the older entitys' twisted sense of humor, before crossing his arms expectantly.

"You're here for a reason, I trust?", he asked, causing the other A.I to nod slowly as it folded its' hands behind its' back.

"I came to inform you that the Shroud on Tuchanka has been successfully rebuilt in secret", the former master of the Reapers began to report in a droning monotone (not unlike a Geth), "all Destroyers given the task returned to the galactic core undetected, and the Shroud is now maintaining Tuchankas' atmosphere at double its' previous efficiency".

The Reapers' _new_ master - the progeny of Commander Shepards' mind and soul - nodded in acknowledgement as he turned back to face Earth, "alright. Harbinger oversaw the repairs?", he asked.

"Yes, he did…", the Beta-Catalyst confirmed, trailing off and waiting for The Shepard to speak. After a few seconds of silence he took the initiative, "do you have any new orders, Variant?".

The Shepard didn't answer for a long moment, seemingly in deep, pensive thought. The Reapers already had standing objectives that weren't yet complete, and the Alpha-Catalyst, despite having the processing power of a dozen supercomputers, couldn't think of anything else that took priority. It seemed that The Shepard of the Reapers still retained the creativity of the long-dead Spectre.

"No. All of the Sovereign-Class ships are already tasked to capacity with repairing the Relays, and the majority of Destroyers are also busy with modifying the Processors and Troop Transports. The fact that all of this has to be done under the galactic radar makes it a long-term priority. So, no, Solution, just keep monitoring all ongoing tasks, for now", the Alpha-Catalyst relayed longwindedly, not turning around, or removing his gaze from the picturesque view of Earth.

Solution nodded, "very well", and briskly spun on his heel to walk a distance of two meters before de-materializing into thin air.

The ghost of Shepard shook his head, pinching the bridge of his nose.

It was sometimes hard to remember just how many names that he was liable to be referred to with. Ever since he had instructed every Reaper to give itself their own designation - he didn't have time to think of a name for over 2,400,000 individuals, and he certainly wasn't going to refer to ever Reaper by a number - a lot of the Reapers had started calling him by various names that they came up with, all of them fitting. Even the _former_ Catalyst had been given a few monikers, which included **"Beta-Catalyst/** **Beta"** , **"Solution"** , **"Elder"** , and "Starchild", even though the last one was a last-minute nickname given by Commander Shepard.

The ones' he could remember off of the top of his head were as follows: **"The Shepard"** , **"Alpha-Catalyst/** **Alpha"** , due to his purpose of being the predominant intelligence in the Citadel, **"Variant"** , in honor of his pseudo-fathers' affect on the solution created by the Leviathans' A.I, **"Spectre"** , and **"Guardian"**. He didn't know _why_ any of the giant metallic squids felt the need to call him any of that, but… he had to admit that all of the monikers were fitting, in some capacity. Thus he… decided not to mind or comment on any of the numerous names he now had. It wasn't as if his attempt at getting the Reapers to simply call him "John" had been successful, _anyway_.

Alphas' hologram grunted to itself, as he received a text-document from Harbinger, detailing exactly what had happened during the repairs being made on the Shroud - a task that had taken three Tuchankan days - and of any possible complications that occurred, or could occur in the future, pertaining to the Shroud. Subconsciously opening the file in the corner of his vision, The Shepard read the thousand-word report in a three seconds, closed it, and sent a non-verbal acknowledgment of the information directly to Harbinger. With most of his consciousness being concentrated in the area in which his… "parent", Commander Shepard had made the decision that resulted in his creation, Variant could only "hear" or notice updates and alerts which he had divided the remaining 15 percent of his concentration to.

Though the Alpha-Catalyst could _do_ and multi-task a lot more while his consciousness was spread throughout the Citadel, his vessel- and even though he could accomplish things even quicker than _that_ while his attention was divided between every Reaper in existence… he would still spend a lot of his time simply using a semi-solid hologram as his body. Whether he did this out of a habit due to his "ancestor" having a single mind, or if he simply preferred silence to being occupied with three dozen different tasks at once was unclear, even to the A.I himself.

Although, he had the feeling that, if it weren't for Beta and Harbinger, he would have been driven insane from sheer stress. He didn't even know if an A.I _could_ be subjected to insanity, but he wasn't going to find out just because progress was being made far below projections.

The way things had been arranged after the end of the Reaper War, and thus had since been functioning, was actually rather odd. Mostly because the Crucible. From what he and Beta could tell, when the Crucible fired, the pulse that was meant to convert Commander Shepards emotions, mind, memories, and (ostensively) soul into an entirely new Artificial Intelligence, and subsequently give control over the Reapers _to_ said A.I… _didn't_ "completely account for everything". The nature of Solutions' existence meant that he was the archived and collective consciousness and memories of every Reaper in the galaxy.

All of the memories, of all of the processed organics which every Reaper was made from, as well as the memories of the Reapers themselves- were automatically filtered and stored in him. He was, rudimentarily speaking, the single string that split apart and "supported" the consciousnesses of all Reapers in existence. The Crucible, was _only_ meant to give _control_ of the Reapers to Alpha. This meant that, while The Shepard replaced Beta as the Reapers' one, true, undisputed master… the older A.I _still_ had to be _kept around_.

If Beta were to be completely removed from the equation, then that would mean that all of the archived information harbored by the Reapers up to and including this point would have… gone down the drain, basically. All of that knowledge and all of those memories would then be lost to the aether. Additionally, every Reaper, their memories being deleted, would be reduced to mindless, instinct-driven primitives in terms of intelligence. Like a Human who was cloned and released from his/her artificial womb yesterday, then getting amnesia and forgetting all of the details of their very short life. It would have resulted in the galaxy being home to 2,400,000, two-kilometer tall killing machines who could only barely understand the concept of "being alive". Not a very nice picture.

This leaves Beta as an A.I with nothing to do. Sure, the Beta-Catalysts' continued existence is what allowed the Reapers to retain their memories and intelligence, but that didn't change the fact that the organic-synthetic hybrids didn't take orders from him anymore.

So, ever the compromiser like his parent, Alpha had Solution serve as an "assistant" of sorts- one who could be of help in various situations. Beta would inform The Shepard of anything and everything relevant, and Reaper-related that occurred. He'd also continue his ongoing job of documenting and "writing down" the histories, cultures, and biologies of all the past civilizations and species that had ever existed. Apparently, he'd been trying to complete that task for the past seventy cycles. Archiving that much information was a challenge, apparently. From what Alpha had been informed, the Beta-Catalyst had only completed ten-percent of the estimated workload.

So, now, Alpha directed the course in which the Reapers were to go, while Beta assisted with everything else.

Which brought up the second complication to come up. Even though all Reapers had minds of their own, and they mostly acted with autonomy, the manner in which Beta-Catalyst directed them was to seize control of all relevant individuals, and to, essentially "focus" each of their minds onto an intended target, in order to give commands. In this way, orders could be given extremely quickly, efficiently, and were what the Reapers were, pretty much, designed to do. Alpha… couldn't do any of that. Even though every Reaper unquestioningly obeyed his every word… he couldn't actually seize control over any of them. He could see through a specific Reapers' eyes, hear what they heard, and sense whatever they sensed, at will… but he couldn't "take the wheel", so to speak. In order to do that, he would have had to _completely_ replace Beta, when the Crucible fired. But, it hadn't worked out that way.

It was none other than Harbinger who offered a solution. Whenever an order needed to be made, whenever a task was to be given, Harbinger would act as a liaison between The Shepard and the Reapers. Any Reaper could contact the A.I, and vice-versa, but Alpha couldn't command multiple Reapers at once (as many situations often demanded)- let alone twenty or fifty at a time. So, Harbinger had become a… First Lieutenant, so to speak. Seeing as though the oldest Reaper in existence had _already_ been a de facto leader among his Reaper siblings since the very beginning, it made sense for Harbinger to be the one who relayed orders from The Shepard. Since any other method of giving out directions was just plain slow and inefficient, this was the best choice.

Funny thing, actually, one would expect that Harbinger would be bitter or project animosity towards the Alpha-Catalyst. Even though The Shepard _technically_ wasn't Commander John Shepard himself… he _may as well be_ for how much of the long-dead Humans' personality he'd inherited! But, surprisingly, no- Harbinger didn't seem to have any ill-will toward Alpha.

Of course… that didn't stop Variant from gloating and throwing around a few barbs at Harbingers' expense… Nope! Too much of a golden opportunity!

The first time he and Harbinger had had a conversation - which ended in Alpha giving his first commands to the Reapers - he called Harbingers' name just as the Reaper had been about to leave and said "Oh! And Harbinger- by the way, in case there's any confusion… _I've_ assumed direct control…", he'd joked with a voice thick with mirth, and an endlessly humorous smirk.

To everyone and their mothers' surprise… it was almost as if Harbinger had laughed… if you could call "absolute silence" laughter. At the time it was as if the Reaper had chuckled, but didn't let Alpha hear it. But… Variant could definitely _feel_ some element of humor there.

That was when Harbinger responded, in a slightly mocked up voice, with the phrase "this hurts me"- an obvious reference to the occasions in which the words "this hurts you" had been said to Commander Shepard.

Both the joke itself, and the shock of discovering that the old Reaper possessed a sense of humor, had caused the Alpha-Catalyst to laugh loudly, before dismissing Harbinger. Remembering the iconic occasion caused The Shepards' avatar to chuckle.

The other reason that Variant came to this place, other than to relax, was so that he could reflect and plan on the future. A time that he could use to thoroughly contemplate every aspect of his plans.

* * *

The very first order of business once Harbinger became the intermediary between The Shepard and the Reapers, was to get the Reapers out of the public eye- to make the Reapers _very_ scarce. The very first thing that the Reapers are ordered to do, was to leave whatever planet they were on. Indoctrinated servants and slaves were, mostly, left behind as the Capital ships, Processor ships, Troop Transports, and Destroyers abruptly stopped fighting and exited the atmosphere. After that, all Reapers were to leave their respective solar systems, and travel to the nearest Mass Relay. With organic forces still distracted with the abandoned shock troops on the ground, the Reapers were given time to perform preliminary repairs on their respective Relays. Said repairs were only temporary solutions, and wouldn't wholly fix the devices- but would allow them to jump to a different system, at least once. Like spreading duct tape over a hole in the wall in lieu of pasting on new plaster and paint.

The destination to which all Reapers were ordered to retreat to, was that of the Omega 4 Relay. The Shepards' plan was to have the Omega 4 be the first Relay fully repaired, and to get all Reapers forces to the galactic core- the site of the destroyed Collector base. He'd already chosen that as their base of operations.

Once all Reapers had gone through to the galactic core… some changes were made. A few ranks culled.

All Husks, Banshees, Marauders, Cannibals, Abominations, Adjutants, and Scions were _put down_ \- **permanently**. Reaperized Drell, Asari, Krogans, Elcor, Hanar, Quarians, Salarians, Volus, and Vorcha were executed too. Only Reaperized Harvesters, Brutes, Ravagers, Praetorians, Yahgs (Berserkers- of which, there were less than fifty), and Varren (HellHounds) were allowed to continue their meager and mindless existence. As for the Indoctrinated persons, those whos' minds were hijacked by the Reapers, but hadn't been fully converted into killing machines?… seeing as though they were too far gone and couldn't be helped, any Indoctrinated slaves were shot in the back of the head.

With the Reapers being reformed as a force of good, it wouldn't befit them to continue to Indoctrinate people- nor would it be wise _or tasteful_ for the "tried and true, servants of justice and peace" (that the Reapers had now, allegedly, become) to utilize the demonized, bastardized, and convoluted perversions that they had so often turned thousands of innocent people into during the Reaper War. So, The Shepard decided to… "cut loose" most of the Reaperized subjects. How Alpha had distinguished between the kinds of Reaperized organics that would be culled, and the ones' who would continued to be used… he supposed he based it on how disturbing each was to look at.

Things like Husks, Marauders, Banshees, Cannibals, Abominations, and Scions were the kinds of creatures that sat _very_ comfortably in their position, down in the "uncanny valley". Each would look like a "zombie" to their respective species. The Adjutants… _they_ were just plain **_wrong_** to even _think_ about… And Swarmers? Those critters should have been cut loose because they were almost useless- The Shepard wouldn't have need for suicide bombers in his army of truth and light. He… _could_ use them as small spies, actually… The Reaperized shock-troops- the Harvesters, Brutes, Ravagers, Praetorians, Berserkers, and HellHounds all either looked too unrecognizable, they had been mere animals before, or they were just, straight up, machines. Thus they were the least creepy to look at.

The mass-execution had gone fairly smoothly… until the Collectors showed up.

As they _had been_ during the Reaper War, the Collectors were a late arrival to the galactic core, mostly because of the painfully slow (in comparison), yet undetectable ships they used, called Black Arks. Like many other people, Commander Shepard had been surprised to hear that the Collectors had returned. The Commander himself didn't encounter any Collectors, but the mission reports from other squads had been accurate enough. Though, he had supposed that it would have been stupid to think that the entire population of the Protheans would have been able to inhabit the Collector Base beyond the Omega 4 Relay. It also explained how things like Scions, Abominations, and Praetorians were present before the Collectors showed up. Apparently, the Reapers had kept the majority of the Collectors in Darkspace, ready for the coming Harvest. During the War, the Collectors would serve as the mop-up crew- the ones who followed behind a Reaper on the ground so that they could sift through the rubble and destruction in order to flush out any hiding or bunkered down organics.

And now… The Shepard had over 50 million Indoctrinated, Collector slaves.

This presented a problem,and most of the options weren't looking too appetizing. He could simply keep the Collectors- use them as the bulk of the Reaper army. But… there were multiple moral implications that stood in the way of that- if the galaxy was ever going to trust the Reapers (hardy har, laugh it up), the fact that they were still enslaving and using the species that had been responsible for the kidnapping and deaths of tens of thousands of Humans… it wouldn't look good.

The fact that the Collectors were, in reality, fallen and twisted Protheans made The Shepard harbor irrevocable pity for the downtrodden insects. Commander Shepard had expressed a lot of sympathy for the Collectors' condition during his campaign against the kidnapping of Human Colonies, once he had discovered the species' past. The Commander had asked Mordin Solus if anything could be done to help them, but even when the answer was "no", he still regretted the fact that the Collectors' destruction was necessary, in the end. The Commanders' interactions with The Last Prothean, Javik, had only deepened the regret.

This left Variant with the only alternative- to kill off the Collectors as well.

But then… he was abruptly reminded by Harbinger of the Leviathans, and how, with their intervention, there had been some Collectors who were freed of Reaper control, and had achieved sentience. The Awakened Collectors who had summarily helped the war effort for this cycles' struggle against the Reaper threat.

This gave The Shepard an idea. When he asked Harbinger if the affect of the Collectors being forcefully cut off from his control, in such a way as to give them sentience, could be done here, the answer had been an uncertain, but technical "yes".

Without wasting any time, Harbinger was summarily ordered to forcefully sever and utterly cut off his lingering control over the Collectors. Even though almost all of the Collectors would perish in this process, a good many of them would live on and achieve sentience. Of course… said Collectors would then be consumed with a raging bloodlust that called for the death of all Reapers- but, it was still sentience, dammit!

So, with the instant deaths of over ninety percent of the Collector population, only 1.9 million were left alive out of the previous fifty million. The Shepard thought it best to set the Awakened Collectors off on an interstellar course for Earth, on their Black Arks, before the insects woke up from their temporary comas. A side-effect of gaining sapient thought-processes after 50,000 years of cloning and genetic modification. This meant that, by the time the Awakened Collectors got to Earth, they'd have woken up with no idea who or where they were. Much less how they'd gotten there. The Collectors would definitely (somewhat) remember the countless years as mindless thralls through broken, confusing shards of memory. If not, then they would probably have an accurate guess as to _what_ they were. He could only hope that the Awakened bugs would be accepted by the galactic community- find some sort of _place_ in the new cycle. A month later… they were, and did.

The Collector race - based on the few Awakened Collectors that had joined the galaxies' struggle during the Reaper War - was recognized by the Turian Hierarchy as extremely hard workers, and impressively powerful Biotic fighters. That… first one may be slightly inaccurate- due to the Collector population being so homogenous and consistent throughout, almost _all_ Collectors fell under one of two groups: "The Workaholics", and "The Apathetics". With the Reapers reportedly _gone_ , and with no conflicts currently being fought, it made sense for a race completely made up of identical, genetically engineered soldiers to be… out of place.

From what The Shepard could observe, ever since their acceptance into the galactic community (an event that was controversial, but quick), every single last Collector always either completely threw themselves into work, or they just… stagnated. It was the most accurate word he could find. A Collector… doesn't have much to live for, honestly. They always either attempted to lose themselves in jobs as C-Sec Officers (due to the number of Citadel-Security officials being drastically reduced when the Reapers moved the Citadel to Earth), or they just didn't _do_ _anything_ one way or the other.

Even two years after their arrival unto the Citadel, one third of all Collectors: made their home as vagrants in the section of the Citadel that had been used to house refugees from the Reaper War, were unemployed, and… didn't seem to be particularly bothered about either of those facts. _Any_ Collector was fully capable of serving as a C-Sec Officer (a job that they've all seemed to be universally adept at), it's just that, if you asked a vagrant Collector why they _didn't_ , the most common response was "I can't find a reason to care". It wasn't much better for Awakened Collectors that _were_ Citadel-Security Cops, either. Even _with_ homes of their own, and being employed… most just say that they took the job because of the fact that "fighting's all they're good at, and it's the only real way to make themselves useful".

Regardless, the Turian Hierarchy, more or less, "took the Collectors in" and are now allies with the Collectors being a Client Race. The motivation behind this arduously thought out decision was that, with the Turian fleets being the least damaged since the Reaper War, they'd need willing soldiers, now more than ever, if the Reapers were to return while the galaxy was still licking its' wounds. And it's well known that _no one_ is as eager as an Awakened Collector to kill Reapers! Despite every Collector now having status as a soldier in the Turian military, they still retained their sovereignty as a free people, and thus, wouldn't be dragged into conflicts they had no stake in, if the Turians were to enter a war.

Anyway, with Reaper forces successfully culled within the week after the firing of the Crucible, and with the Collectors being inducted into society, The Shepard began to set about having the Reapers repair the Mass Relay network. The biggest priority was to repair the interstellar path ways which connected all of the sentient races' home worlds. Earth, Palaven, Thessia, Sur'Kesh, Tuchanka, Dekuuna, Kahje, Rannoch, Irune, Khar'shan, Turvess, and Heshtok. The Rachni-Relay was also repaired. With the Citadel now inhabiting the Sol system, it made the job easier and quicker, since the Reapers didn't have to go out of their way to repair the Relay that led to the Widow system.

However, the decision of whether to unlock all of the _previously locked_ Relays was still a dilemma. The laws against opening locked Relays couldn't stop him… but, then again, if there _was_ a new species beyond it that turned out to be extremely hostile, the galaxy wouldn't be prepared to repel the invaders, even with the Reapers at the ready. So… The Shepard decided to leave the restricted Relays alone, in the end.

The task took a total of three months, with a focused effort. With that priority out of the way, and interstellar routes to all home worlds established, the Reapers set about repairing all other Relays, in an ongoing challenge that still, after two years, and not yet been fully completed. Almost sixty percent of it was done, and projections showed, at this rate, with the Reapers forced to stay out of sight and under the general radar, the Mass Relays (excluding the locked ones) would be fully repaired within the decade.

After that… all that was really left to do for The Shepard was to monitor galaxy while the Relays were being repaired. With the Citadel being his home, he could watch through a surprising amount of cameras, whatever happened in the Council Chambers, allowing him to get a good idea of the political situation in the galaxy. Despite the fact that he hated politics and bureaucrats as much as Commander Shepard had. He had more than a dozen Oculi Drones that would make regular monitoring patrols within the Terminus Systems- mostly around Khar'shan and Omega. There were at least five Swarmers in every Ward of the Citadel, who were there to stealthily take note of anything unusual or out of place that happened. They were strictly ordered to stay out of private homes or domiciles, though. More than a few Harvesters were sent to Parnack in order to keep an eye on the Yahgs. And a Sovereign-class Reaper was in the orbit of Rannoch- seeing how the Quarians and Geth were doing.

The only truly odd thing that had to be done was that, after a while of no one in the Council - or in the public (oddly enough) - mentioning the Raloi of Turvess, The Shepard decided that it would probably be best to send a Destroyer there to check on the avians. The poor birds were practically shaking in their boots (figuratively) and had just about every weapon at their disposal pointed upwards. They'd, presumably, been like this for the duration of the Reaper War, since it was the appearance of the Reapers which caused them to destroy every one of their satellites, cut off communication with the council, hunker down, and hope that they were disregarded as a pre-spaceflight species.

It, apparently, hadn't been an easy task on the dispatched Destroyers' part to get past the Ralois' orbital defenses undetected, and get on the ground. While the Reaper was occupied with quickly, quietly, and safely disabling the defense cannons on the surface, Variant sent anonymous messages to Councilors Tevos, Sparatus, and Valern, that the Raloi were waiting for contact from the Citadel. The message also contained information about what the Raloi had been doing during the Reaper War. Not the most subtle thing that could have been done, but the job was done, nonetheless. In the end, five weeks later, the Raloi were formally accepted into the galactic community. An event which had been postponed due to the Reaper War.

The Raloi people were now working to begin colonization efforts within their home system. Oddly enough, the only help that their government would accept was that of blueprints for the needed space vessels- they'd politely declined any other form of assistance from any of the Council races. It was probably a facet of their culture, or something- how you should always do things yourself, or… something. The Raloi Ambassador wasn't particularly clear about it- just said that the people of Turvess would prefer to colonize other planets on their own… at least… _for the most part_.

After the Crucible was fired, it had taken two months for the allied Quarians and Geth to get back to Rannoch. Once they'd gotten there, nobody heard from either of them for four months, which was concerning to the Council, since now was the _best_ time for negotiations to be made between the Quarians, Geth, and Citadel space. Especially if the Reapers were to ever return- formal alliances needed to be made… no matter how unnecessary they were at _this_ point. Then, two _more_ months later, contact was made, and everyone was surprised to hear that the two races now referred to themselves as the "Quarian-Geth Union".

Indeed, the Geth had kept the promise they made before the battle for Earth, and had since been helping the Quarians in any way possible. But… that was just the problem, Artificial Intelligences were still considered illegal by Citadel law, and now that all Geth were _fully actualized_ AIs, due to the Reaper code and Legions' sacrifice… any attempt at getting an embassy on the Unions' part was denied- it was like talking to a brick wall. Geth units weren't permitted on the Citadel, and any Quarian discovered to possess a Geth program in their suit would be detained and forced to sign a contract that, should the Geth do anything of a questionable nature, then the Quarian would be held responsible and promptly "kicked off of" the Citadel.

Efforts were being made, on both sides, ever since to come to some sort of understanding and compromise.

The galactic stage remained rather… bland from that point. The only thing that politicians were talking about were… the Reapers, as well as how and when the races of the galaxy should prepare for the Reapers' possible return. It was mostly about various representatives asking for the Council to modify the Treaty of Farixen- to try and have the limit of "Dreadnoughts-per-race" increased. Other than that, rebuilding was what occupied the thoughts of many who had the wellbeing of their entire species in mind. The efforts were progressing slowly, but surely. It certainly opened up _a lot_ of jobs involving construction and manual labor, so that was… good.

The Rachni had disappeared. Again. They just made a beeline for the Rachni Relay following the Battle for Earth and no one has heard or seen any sign of them since. The last Rachni Queen seemed to assume that the promise she'd made to Commander Shepard of disappearing forever still stood.

Other than the Batarians making a species-wide pilgrimage back to Khar'shan- something they still haven't fully achieved, due to a lot of Batarians being _unable_ to gain transport to the Terminus Systems… there wasn't much else to monitor.

 _That_ thought… gave The Shepard pause. It wasn't true. There were… _other_ things to keep an eye on. They weren't nearly as important galaxy-wise… but he had sworn to watch over them, regardless. The crew of the Normandy… _that_ thought made Variant want to smile…

A monument was built in the Presidium of the Citadel- a testament to the Normandy, its' crew, what they stood for, and all they did for the galaxy. This… giant, golden statue of all the people who served on the Normandy as the main ground squad- all captured in absolutely _perfect_ detail, all in various positions and poses. A very large plaque that was held up by a steel pole displayed the names of those who fought with the great Commander Shepard, as well as all of their accomplishments. The names of the _rest_ of the crew were also tossed in there- those who worked on the ship, but didn't fight. A small memorial for the fallen crew members was placed nearby- small tombstones with the likeness and name of all those who gave their lives as part of both the Normandy-SR1 and 2.

The surviving crew members, of which there were (thankfully) many, were honored as heroes- both by each of their respective species, and by the galaxy as a whole. Each were to receive various awards, medals, and commendations, but, naturally, a lot of the Normandys' ground squad were busy with their own responsibilities, and thus have probably forgotten to pick up their awards.

How "they'd" managed to get such accurate descriptions on all of the ground team was… complicated. Everyone who served on the ship obviously had to bend the story in order to play off EDI as a VI. Yes, she was still a secret.

Anyway… however anonymous any members of the ground squad remained… The Shepard still kept an… _extremely_ close watch over all of them.

Many would have openly judged Commander Shepards' decision to become "The Shepard", to control the Reapers, had they been there. They would have demanded how he could be so arrogant as to give himself so much power- how he could presume to make a choice of this magnitude with no one to object or provide input… how he could simply, just… _abandon_ his responsibilities… his crew, his friends… and his lover. Yes, the man would have been criticized greatly.

But "abandon" his friends- "abandon" responsibility- and "abandon" all the people he ever cared about, was **_NOT_** what the Commander had done!

In reality… it had been one of the many things that he had sworn to keep in mind, in his last milliseconds of existence, as his body was being disintegrated. Shepard had sworn to himself, and to God, that he would _watch over_ the ones who lived on- the ones who carried the memory of the man he was… the ones that he had grown to regard as an adoptive family. Certainly not excluding the person whom he'd grown… _especially_ close to…

Not _one_ of them was more than a kilometers' distance away from a Harvester that was assigned to act as a guardian…

* * *

Garrus Vakarian, one of Commander Shepards' closest and best friends, had been re-applied as a Spectre candidate by a certain "Jondum Bau". Under the evaluation of the Salarian, Garrus proved to pass the Spectre standard with flying colors, and was thus given all of the privileges and authority of a Special Tactics and Reconnaissance agent. Spectre Vakarians' first mission was to investigate the Mass Relays and how they're, miraculously being repaired, seemingly, for no reason, and without anyone knowing how and when. This _was_ an oddity, since the entire Victory Fleet had been trapped in the Sol system and cluster for weeks, until, somehow, when no one was "looking", the Sol Relay was repaired under everyones' nose.

So, now, Garrus was trying to find out how the Relays were repaired and how the Relays are _still_ being put back together while no one can seem to figure out who or what is doing it. Unlike the Council, who refuse to acknowledge the theory that it's the Reapers that are repairing the Relays (probably out of fear), Garrus didn't rule out any possibility.

… he was actually getting fairly close to finding the truth. From the Reaper-developed bug that had been placed inside Garrus' personal shuttle, he seemed to be finding a pattern. He'd figured out how to know if a Relay had been temporarily repaired… and he suspected that the Reapers had haphazardly patched them up before they were used. And he suspected that this pattern would tell him where the Reapers had gone. The Turian Spectre was getting closer and closer to following the trail which ended at the Omega 4 Relay. If Garrus managed to deduce that the Reapers had made their refuge in the galactic core… The Shepard would have to… come up with a plan on the spot, if it came to an emergency.

Impulsively enacting half-baked, dangerous, foolhardy, and generally poor excuses for plans had… always seemed to work out for Commander Shepard.

Ashley Williams was, obviously, still a Spectre. Despite how she was, temporarily, put under scrutiny for the fact that she was made a Spectre by a Donnel Udina, the man who attempted a coup and associated with Cerberus. But, she was deemed valuable enough, and a competent enough soldier, for the Council to dismiss any concerns. She was currently working in tandem with Garrus Vakarian in the task of investigating the Relays. Sometimes they worked with each other directly whenever either of them found a lead, or they simply compared notes and information over a video link.

What was weird, was that Ashley seemed to have finally, and utterly let go of her distrust when it came to other races. Whether it was from spending so much time around the Normandys' ground squad, or from fighting alongside aliens, or from seeing so many alien fleets come to Earths' rescue, was unclear. But, it still made The Shepard… _proud_ , in a way. Which was just as well, since, back on Virmire, Commander Shepard had been tempted to save _Kaidans'_ life, instead, just because of Ashley being borderline racist, simply on principle, but… _she_ was the one who'd been guarding the bomb, and the mission came first.

Urdnot Wrex was still dealing with the ongoing task of leading his people through the processes of rebuilding, moving forward, and colonization of other planets. This left him very, _very_ busy. The Council _had_ been worried about Wrexs' intentions, as well as his _ability_ to lead and, well, _handle_ the Krogan. That was until they seemed to realize that Wrex was the only thing between the Krogan, and a second Rebellion. So, they allowed him the benefit of the doubt. They even offered to give him a few repossessed ATLAS mechs as good will… probably to try and make sure that Wrex wasn't assassinated, but it was still a… _nice_ thought. Even if Wrex politely refused.

Urdnot Grunt was… actually "in between jobs" at the moment, oddly enough. It was a difficult decision, admittedly. He was trying to decide whether to keep leading Aralakh Company, or to sign on as Urdnot Wrexs' bodyguard.

There were pros and cons to both. Because a lot of Krogan were looking to enact revenge on the Turians and Salarians, there would definitely be those who looked to kill or defeat Wrex in combat, in order to prove him unworthy of leading Clan Urdnot, and thus, the Krogan race. Summarily, Grunt would be ideal to stop any assassinations- or to just… stop the enemies of Wrex in general. But… then again almost all Krogan were too busy finding wives and raising families to care that Wrex was leading, or what the Turians or Salarians were doing either. One would think that Wrex would be apposed to having a bodyguard, but he actually supported the idea, mostly because he wanted to be able to guide the Krogan race- regardless of his own skills as a warrior. He was… _also_ raising a family of his own with Urdnot Bakara, and would require for his family to be protected as well, in case anyone decided to get to him through them.

There were good reasons for Grunt to continue being the leader of Aralakh Company, too. There was a _reason he_ was chosen as the battalions' commander- especially with Aralakh Company representing the idea of Krogan unity, and his tank-bred genes. And without him there in the past, the group wouldn't have become as famous as it did. The entire reason that Aralakh Company was so successful, was because of Grunt. If the battalion were to be wiped out because of a battle they couldn't have won without him… well, it's quite obvious why that would be bad.

Other than that whole debacle, it seemed as if Grunt has been wanting to travel to Korlus for a while. The place in which he'd been created by Warlord Okeer. What Grunt hoped to find or accomplish there- or even his reasons for going were unclear, but he doesn't seem to be able to make any sort of life-altering decision until he does. Finding time to do so has been surprisingly difficult, considering he had no real job, at the moment.

Samara was, unsurprisingly, still a Justicar, and was doing "Justicar stuff", running around Asari space, righting wrongs and killing anyone that had the nerve to look her funny. The only thing that had changed since her days before the suicide mission into the galactic core, was that she visited her daughter, Falere, much more frequently.

Jacob Taylor had long since been living with his wife, Brynn Taylor, on Bekenstein with their two children. Though he tried to maintain a steady job as a drill sergeant and instructor, training new Alliance personnel. It seemed to be a fairly well working arrangement, for now.

Zaeed Massani, well, it wouldn't be surprising to anyone that he was still a freelance mercenary. Though, occasionally, now he'd take jobs from the Alliance. Given how he was pretty much a celebrity, due to being honored as a hero, finding challenging and important jobs in his line of work was now easier than ever. The only thing particularly peculiar with his life was that he was planning to take leadership of the Blue Suns from Darner Vosque. If and/or when Zaeed decided to enact his plans… The Shepard would do what he could to assist- or at least ensure that the mercenary came out of the debacle with all of his limbs still attached.

Miranda Lawson had become head of an Alliance Special Tasks Group, and was working alongside her sister, Oriana, in their current task of… big surprise- trying to find the Reapers. It almost made Variant want to sigh with how many people that he knew on a first name basis who were looking for the machines. She and her sister were also trying to answer the question where the Reapers had gone, how the Relays were being rebuilt, why the Reapers had retreated- etcetera, etcetera. She would have a lot of help in this task from the information forwarded by Ashley and Garrus. Miranda was going to be… difficult to deal with. She could be _very_ persistent, and if she devoted as much effort to finding the Reapers as she did to her work with the Lazarus Project… well, something told Alpha that he'd actually need to figure out a plan.

Kasumi Goto was now living very comfortably in a villa on Bekenstein. The same villa, ironically, that had been owned by Donovan Hock. Due to her crimes of trespassing, breaking and entering, and thievery being somewhat minor, and because of her help in building the Crucible, she was exonerated from all charges, and was paid for her efforts during the Reaper War. After a short two months of probation, Kasumi… immediately started stealing again. No one really knew of it, a testament to her skills as a thief. Other than what had become a mere hobby, she still lived in relative, secluded luxury, with Keijis' Graybox. Although… The Shepard had to wonder if she chose to live on Bekenstein simply because she somehow knew that Jacob would too…

Jack (AKA: Jennifer, AKA: Jaqueline Nought, AKA: Subject-Zero) was still "living the dream" as an instructor for young Biotics who wanted to join the Alliance. With her "kids" from Grissom Academy having served in a support role during the Reaper War, most of them now served on Frigates. Well, _that_ or they stuck with Jack and helped in the teaching of Biotics at the newly renovated Grissom Academy as tutors or demonstrators.

James Vega had officially signed on with N7 and was being trained as such.

Samantha Traynor, EDI, and Joker were still on the Normandy. Where the Hell _else_ would they _want_ to be? The ship was EDIs' body, and Joker was still the best helmsman in all the Alliance Fleets. Only his skills were deemed adequate to fly the Alliance Flagship. With the Normandy coming under the command of Admiral Hackett… the situation became infinitely more complicated. It was inevitable that EDI wouldn't be able to masquerade as a VI for very long- not with Hacketts' scrutinizing gaze. So, when push came to shove, and Joker was forced to explain the existence of an AI on the Normandy… his only explanation was that the Normandy _needed_ EDI, and that Commander Shepard had _trusted_ the AI. He asked Hackett that this matter not be brought to the attention of neither the Council, or the rest of Alliance Command.

The argument… had proven to be enough, thankfully. Hackett agreed to keep quiet about it, as long as Joker made sure that EDI never got out of hand. If worse came to worst, and the Council ever found out, then the Alliance would be forced to claim ignorance and blame the creation of the AI on Cerberus. In the end, the situation was resolved peacefully. Which was good… because Alpha had _literally_ been _one phone call_ away from taking forceful action in order to keep EDI and Joker safe from harm or punishment.

Gabriella Daniels, Kenneth Donnelly, and Major Coats had since resigned from the Alliance and were presiding over the reconstruction of London.

Tali'Zorah Vas Normandy was now a fairly important individual. She was still on the Admiralty Board, but, in addition to that, she served as an official liaison between the Quarians and Geth within the Union, and worked to smooth over any problems that cropped up between the two races. Also, she was chosen as the Quarian-Geth Union Ambassador to the Citadel Council, and spoke on the behalf of both species. There were a multitude of reasons for this. Her knowledge of the way the Geth worked, her crucial part in the brokering of peace between her species and theirs, and her well-known friendship with the deceased Legion made her an ideal representative, who had a very unique perspective. For the past three months, she'd been trying to negotiate with the Council and was working to find a way to legalize the creation and use of AIs. Her success in this task would decide the fate of the Union, and EDI.

Other than that, it was rumored to most, but a known fact to The Shepard, that Tali had agreed to carry a Geth program in her enviro-suit. It was deemed fitting by both the Quarian Conclave and the Geth Consensus that she participated in the practice. Not only to serve as an example to her people, but also to have an idea of what the Geths' consensuses were. The program in Talis' suit was capable of receiving data from the Consensus while separated from it, and would thus relay to her what the Geths' perspective on certain matters was. The relationship was… rocky, at first, but Tali eventually grew to like the AI, and had named the Geth "Harmony". A lot of Quarians did that nowadays- attached monikers to various Geth.

Javik, The Last Prothean. One would be _very_ shocked to find that he had become the… "King" of the Collectors. A lot of people would have thought him to be disgusted by what the Reapers had twisted his people into. But… that wasn't the way it turned out. When he'd heard that there were Awakened Collectors on the Citadel, he went straight there. When the Collectors all heard of there being a Prothean, they made every effort to find him. Variant watched the very first interaction between Javik and a large group of Collectors. It was mostly silent and, slightly awkward- but… it went well. After that he became a very important figure in their community. The Collectors didn't really _have_ any kind of government, they mostly just all met up in one spot on the Citadel and "compared notes". But Javik was someone who was often expected to make decisions- who the Collectors looked to for guidance.

The Awakened Collectors looked up to Javik as a survivor, and as the last and truest example of their peoples' former glory. Javik… seemed to want to make sure that his "long-lost cousins" found their proper place in the current cycle. This wasn't something The Shepard would have expected- Javik had always seemed so harsh and unforgiving. But it was possible that Javiks' time among the "primitives" onboard the Normandy had given him a new outlook on how he saw other races. It was also possible that the democratic methods of the current galactic government had inspired him in some way.

Javiks' opinion was highly regarded among the Collectors. He recognized the fact that the Protheans' glory days were over, and he made sure that all Collectors knew that their place in the new society was _not_ one of leadership. The Protheans had _had_ their chance to lead, and they blew it- imperial rule and galactic doctrine obviously weren't the answers. When the Reapers had invaded last time, the galaxy was too uniform, too homogenous, and they paid the price for it. Javik always insisted that the Collectors should now exist to serve- to do what they were good at: fight. This lead a lot of Collectors to either join C-Sec or the Turian military. Not all of them, but… it was a start.

Javik wasn't the one who represented the Collectors in the galactic stage, though. He may have been in a leadership position, but that didn't mean he fully and fluently understood the desires and needs of the Collector populous. The job of being the Collectors' ambassador went to an individual who called himself "Cytotax Destrin Etrigann". The Awakened Collector was a cloned descendant of a Prothean who was one of the leaders of their civilization, before the Reapers came. Thus, "Cyto" had the most experience when it came to politics. Plus, Cytotax had been in the same, indoctrinated and twisted boat as every other Awakened Collector. Aside from living on the Citadel and being an attendant of the Collectors' community meetings, Javik was also helping Liara write that book that they'd agreed on.

The Collectors were already recognized as a sovereign and independent people, and they already had an embassy on the Citadel, so there really wasn't much for Cytotax to address when it came to the Council. Other than the Councils' concerns about how a third of the Collector population was homeless, not much was needed of them. That… would soon change however…

Liara T'Soni. She now lived and worked in the Presidium as an information broker… but also "moonlighted" as the Shadow Broker. Liara was a very powerful individual- both in society as a whole, _and_ due to her job as the Broker. The Asari possessed… _very_ sensitive information. The Prothean Beacon, hidden in the Temple of Athame on Thessia. The fact that her people were only as powerful as they were because of the coddling of the Protheans. The fact that the Asari had been hoarding Prothean secrets for millennia. One had to wonder how different the Asari race would have been without the Protheans' involvement. When Liara, Shepard, and Javik had gone down to Thessia during the Reaper War, and Javik irrevocably proved that the Asari were a joke, Liara had been very- _very_ bitter toward the Asari governments' secret and her mothers' involvement in it. Even though she had accepted the truth… she still _knew_ everything, _and_ had the proof needed to validate her knowledge!

If she were to ever happen to become _especially_ bitter about all of it, one day… it would be chaos. She'd said so herself, with the knowledge at her disposal, she could literally start a war.

At one point, two months ago… she did. Alpha didn't stop her.

Liara contacted Javik through his Omni-tool while he was present during one of the Collectors' public meetings. She gave a list of the Asari races' crimes to Javik and Cytotax, sent them all of the evidence that would prove it to the Council, and even offered payment for them to do so. While Javik had already known of all of this, the only thing he lacked was proof. No payment was necessary, however. The Collectors present became furious that the Asari race had broken their own law, that they'd been hoarding _their_ peoples' technology and kept the Beacon a secret, when Prothean tech was meant to be shared to all.

The Awakened Collectors had already been given initial possession of any and all discovered Prothean tech. The Collectors were considered the "authority" when it came to all things Prothean- whenever any technology was dug up, the Collectors were given final say on how the knowledge and materials could be used, and by whom. It was considered a cautionary security method by the Council- a way to make sure that any and all Prothean knowledge and technology was distributed and regulated fairly. There were those who would be there to make sure that the Collectors did the distributing fairly, themselves. It was never needed, though- the Collectors had no desire to keep the tech for themselves, and they held no real grudges against any race.

Needless to say, this bit of utter hypocrisy and greed on the part of the Asari government was quite infuriating to them. It didn't matter that the Beacon was something that had been there since the last cycle, the Asari _still_ should have made it known from the beginning. The fact that this was one of the first times that anyone outside of the Matriarchs in government knew of it was… eye-twitchingly angering. The Collector race, at least the ones who could be bothered to express any opinion either way, had always had, somewhat, of a bone to pick with the Asari.

If you asked any Collector who had a job what they thought of the Asari, they'd say something along the lines of "a waste of time to the Prothean scientists who studied them", and "a species full of undeservingly arrogant narcissists". The Shepard suspected that this venom stemmed from the "Cosmic Imperative", as well as the expectations that had been set for the Asari. The Protheans had put all of their hopes into the theory that the Asari would dominate the galaxy and be able to stop the Reapers. But… they didn't do either of those.

According to most Collectors, the Asari race turned out to be a bunch of weak-willed, gutless compromisers who shrank from combat and excelled in poetry and art, rather than military and imperial power. And the Asari did _not_ fair very well _at all_ in the Reaper War! Despite their entire species being naturally Biotic (thanks to the Protheans) _and_ despite the existence of Asari Commandos, their overall strength was… sub-par. And that's not all- Earth may have been the first planet to fall, but that was only because the Humans had been taken by surprise. Even with Earth occupied, Humanity had still organized a stiff resistance and had rebelled to the bitter end. But the _Asari_?- they'd had every warning available, they'd gotten every chance to prepare and gather their forces… and the Reapers had _still_ steamrolled the Hell out of Thessia! Commander Shepard had seen and said it himself, the Reapers just shoved right through Thessias' defenses like they were on a leisurely Sunday stroll!

What's more, is that this wasn't the first galactic conflict that the Asari had dropped the ball on. The Krogan Rebellions, the Rachni War- the Asari didn't contribute very much- mostly, they just got _other_ races to do it for them! As Commander Shepard said while on shore leave, "have the Asari ever actually _won_ a galactic war?".

However, as said by most Collectors, all of this could have been forgiven and forgotten about, since, in the end, it wasn't required for the Asari to dominate the galaxy in order to defeat the Reapers… except _now_ , apparently, the Asari were _only_ as influential and strong _as they were_ … because they'd been hoarding Prothean technology for centuries! The same technology that legally and _rightfully_ belonged to _them_ , the Collectors!

While Javik agreed on most of these points, he didn't seem to share these views as strongly as the rest of the people present. He wouldn't go to the Council, but he _would_ testify after the address that all of the evidence is true. So, Cytotax Destrin Etrigann had decided to address the Council alone.

The Shepard had to agree, even though he hated politics and bureaucracy, he had to agree with the Collectors on a lot of what they're selling.

He _also_ had to admit that, the way that Cyto had handled the whole thing was… _masterfully_ done! Three Awakened Collectors, told to say that they were acting on behalf of Cyto, each requested a private meeting with the Human, Turian, and Salarian Councilors. These Collectors' objectives were to _partially_ reveal the Asaris' secrets, and to tell each Councilor that the whole truth would be revealed when Cytotax addressed the Council the next day. An interesting fact about Collectors was that they could be _excellent_ actors and voice imitators when they had enough motivation to do so- so when the three messengers met with their respective Councilor, they all acted believably "hush-hush" and urgent about all of it. This was meant to get the Councilors' attentions, and to make their case more believable.

As a result of this small act of subversion, the evidence at their disposal, and Javiks' testimony on seeing all of it for himself… Cytotaxs' presentation left no doubts. His argument used the Collectors' legal dominion over Prothean tech to demand that the Beacon on Thessia be returned to its' rightful owners, he used the law to paint the Asari in a (very) negative light, he even outright accused Tevos of being greedy and a liar. The Asari race had been breaking intergalactic law for centuries. The repercussions and punishments for hiding, hoarding, or researching Prothean technology in secret were some of the harshest and cruel in all of interstellar policy.

Councilor Tevos looked completely humiliated and speechless. Councilors Sparatus, Valern, and Anders (the newly appointed Human Councilor) looked utterly livid- furious.

It took forty-eight hours for a proper punishment to be decided upon. There would definitely be kickback, but… the Asari were kicked off of the Council. They were forced to relinquish the Destiny Ascension and the appropriate amount of Dreadnoughts to the C-Sec Patrol Fleet, a full investigation using Spectres was launched into taking a _very_ close look at the Asari government and the Matriarchs, the Prothean Beacon on Thessia was moved and handed over to the Collectors on the Citadel, and all Asari colonies were scrutinized thoroughly for any other Prothean artifacts that the Asari may have hidden.

All of this left a power vacuum. One that needed to be filled- soon. When Councilor Sparatus (to everyones' surprise) suggested that the Collectors take up the mantle- at least temporarily, Cytotax had to convene with the other Collectors. They all remembered what Javik had said- the Collectors' place shouldn't be one of leadership. But… if Cyto accepted a temporary role of Councilor… it would make coordinating the Collectors onboard the Citadel infinitely easier. But, the choice was still a big one, and he wouldn't be choosing either way for a while.

In the first week following the Asaris' fall from power, things were… tense. The Matriarchs were humiliated and furious at the blasphemous amount of suspicion and scrutiny that they were being subjected to. Everyone knew that the only thing worse than a vindictive woman, was a vindictive Asari. The general Asari public were disgusted and shocked at their leaders' actions- appalled that a Matriarch could condone committing such a crime as they did.

Initially… most Asaris' opinions were along the lines of "I can't believe our government would do that!". If The Shepard had to be honest… it felt _really_ good to see the Asari knocked down a peg.

For a full week, nothing happened. It appeared to be business as usual. Until the Asari populous began to experience the indignities and drawbacks that came with only being a client race. They'd all gotten used to being on top, and now that they weren't at the height of their power- nor the height of galactic society… they _really_ didn't like it. It was made worse by the distrust, scorn, and sometimes outright hate that they were treated with by the races who had once looked up to them as examples.

Eventually… tension between the Asari and Collectors increased. You could _feel_ the loathing in the air, whenever an Asari and Collector were in the same room- eyeing each other. It was mostly the Asari from which the hate flowed. Arguments and shouting matches between members of the two species would be a common sight in the streets of the Citadel- sometimes over the smallest issues.

Before the crimes of the Asari race were made common knowledge, the Asari had treated the Collectors with just as much hospitality and welcoming attitudes as they would with any race that joined the galactic stage. But then _this_ is how they were repaid? Kicked off of the Council?

It wasn't until Cytotax accepted the temporary role of Councilor that things really started to boil over. The Asari had their ships taken away from them, they were under an, almost inordinate amount suspicion, and they were being treated like they were some variety of "greedy, malevolent entities" by the Volus, the Elcor, ( _especially_ ) the Hanar- all of which were peoples who once saw the Asari as paragons. And _now_ … they were being _replaced_ by _overgrown **cockroaches!?**_ And all because some bureaucratic shithead, from centuries ago, made a stupid decision!? The Asari were at an all time low…

… and they all blamed the Collectors for it.

One late afternoon, a very lazy Sunday, when everyone was either at home or in bed… reports came in from C-Sec of a small group of Asari Commandos - who'd been layer-off because of the Asaris' expulsion from the Council - rioting in the Presidium. When C-Sec turned up on the scene (most of Citadel-Security was made up of 70% Collectors), the Commandos openly attacked them. The situation was dealt with quickly, but a lot of people had still seen the event on live television.

The riot seemed to spark a chain-reaction. All at once, reports and phone calls from all over the Wards indicated that Asari civilians everywhere were picking fights with Collectors. The Shepard didn't need to intervene, the fights only lasted a few minutes, and they rarely ever escalated above fisticuffs and some Biotics. Naturally, the Collectors "won" 99 percent of the time, both in a physical sense, and in the legal department. Most could claim innocence and say that they were practicing their right of self-defense. And most other people would believe it.

Plus it didn't hurt their situation that, three times out of five, a Collector that you see on the street was a C-Sec Officer.

The only time that anything really concerning happened was with this particular skirmish down in the refugee section of the docks. There was this Awakened Collector who was on his way to a skycar when three Asari Commandos ambushed him and took the guy by surprise. Where the Asari had come from was open for debate. Now, usually, this would be a fairly even fight. But the odd thing about this Collector (who simply called himself "Condack") was that he didn't have any Biotics. A Collector without Biotics would be like a Drell lacking eidetic recall. Because of this, he was often seen as a "runt" among his Collector siblings- they didn't pick on him for it, but they made sure to compensate for his disadvantage. Despite being taken by surprise, and not having Biotics, the insect put up an admirable fight- it wasn't easy to kill something that could fly, shrug off small-arms fire, and had organic blades in his arms. He'd even managed to amputate one of the Commandos' arms, and had broken anothers' sternum with a powerful kick to the chest.

But, one of the Asari possessed a shotgun, and Condack was in a bad way- hiding behind cover after taking a full-on shotgun blast to his chest and bleeding black blood profusely. When Condack was about to pass out from blood loss, and the Commando was about to advance… something… _happened_. The very next instant, the Collector unleashed a powerful, orange, Biotic repulse while shouting (in a voice that seemed too loud to be coming from an individual) "FACE THE WRATH OF HARBINGER!". The Biotic attack had sent all three Commandos flying across the length of the docks- knocking all of them unconscious immediately. What had happened became obvious when one saw the cracked, molten-looking, glowing yellow exoskeleton and eyes that Condack had- his six eyes, seemingly, aflame.

The next minute, Condacks' brief "possession" subsided, and he collapsed to the floor in exhaustion with his wounds healed.

Nobody had seen the fight. And thus, nobody but The Shepard… and _Harbinger_ knew what had taken place.

This was… concerning for any number of reasons. It meant that Harbinger was still able to take (at least temporary) control of any Collector. This raised the question of why this wasn't known before-hand… and why Harbinger had felt the need to intervene when he did.

When Alpha had demanded an explanation, Harbinger claimed that he didn't know that he could do that. The Reaper insisted that he'd merely been watching at the time, and had miraculously taken control of Condack. The Reapers had no reason to lie, nor did they possess ambition, so The Shepard was inclined to believe him.

Although… if the Alpha-Catalyst didn't know any better… he'd almost say that Harbinger had been… concerned for the Collectors' safety. Of course, that would be completely ridiculous- other than the hint of a dry sense of humor, Harbinger was colder than Jack Frosts' air conditioner.

In any case, the tiny rebellion throughout the Citadel was quickly quashed by C-Sec and the Collectors. This was the first time that society had ever seen the Asari, as a whole, react to an issue violently. If the Matriarchs or the Asari government officials had actually _done anything_ to try and placate their people, it probably wouldn't have happened. But, no, they were too busy "sulking" for lack of a better word. The effects of this event, now called the "Collector/Asari Skirmishes", was far-reaching and undeniable.

It didn't matter that the only Asari that engaged in violent behavior were those who possessed grudges against specific Collector(s). The entire galaxy had just seen that the Asari, for all of their ageless superiority, could still be angered- could still be wound up, and could still end up stooping to violence- _just_ like _everyone else_!

Minutes after the punch-ups (fist fights) had been stopped, interrogations and inquiries made by the Investigations Division of Citadel-Security revealed that the Collector/Asari Skirmishes had been a front for a much more organized operation. An Asari Matriarch by the name of V'Tarkinya (who had a reputation for being vindictive to the point of maliciousness) had paid off a group of Asari mercenaries to carry out an unknown task. Further digging led to the Collector Special Crimes Division discovering that half of the Asari Commandos' who'd participated in the first riot in the Presidium were actually from the aforementioned mercenary group, but had been paid to orchestrate the uprising as a distraction. Matriarch V'Tarkinya must have had a very good sense of the general attitude among the Asari aboard the Citadel. It was a stroke of sheer luck that C-Sec was able to prevent the deaths of Councilors Sparatus, Anders, Valern, and Cytotax. Ironically, it had taken an Asari bomb-squad officer to disable the Asari-manufactured explosive that had been hidden in the Council Chambers.

And _all_ of this happened… because of Liara T'Soni. She'd successfully removed her own race from power, using nothing but a view data files.

* * *

In short, The Shepard had been watching the Commanders' teammates closely. He'd watch over them, help them, and keep them as safe as possible. But… none of them were aware of the fact that, in essence, The Shepard was their beloved Commander. Variant could only guess, however, as to how any of them would react to him being the Reapers' master.

Garrus would try his best to fully understand the situation, as well as Shepards' reasons for using the Crucible the way he did, and then he would try to reiterate all of it in way that made practical sense. That was the best case scenario. If the Turian reacted badly… The Shepard didn't know what would happen. Garrus would probably call Shepard a hypocrite, at the least.

Ashley would probably end up distrusting The Shepard- she'd be as paranoid as humanly possible.

Wrex and Grunt would either not show any immediate reaction, or they'd congratulate him on making the Reapers his bitch.

Liara, James, Joker, Samantha, Zaeed, Jacob, Kasumi, and EDI probably wouldn't know how to think or feel about it, initially, but something told The Shepard that they'd probably end up trusting him unconditionally, once they were confident that it was really the progeny of Commander Shepard in front of them.

Miranda, depending on how it went, would either respond with practicality or paranoia. She was… she was a wildcard. She could end up being very helpful, or she could cause trouble and royally fuck up the entire situation.

The only people that The Shepard was unsure of were Tali and Jack. The Quarian had had strong feelings about AIs for a while, but, conversely, she was also a spokesperson for the legalization of AIs now, and had obviously gained a new perspective on the Geth. And _Jack_?… well that, uh… that would be just plain complicated.

The only person who was almost guaranteed to react badly was… _Javik_.

The Prothean had been Hell-bent on killing every last reason. He was _still_ Hell-bent on killing Reapers! The only reason he hadn't already gone off on his own to hunt the Reapers down was because of the Collectors. And even _then_ he did everything in his power to make sure that every Collector was primed and ready for the return of the giant, metal cephalopods. In fact… the only reason that most Collectors even got up in the morning was because of the hope that they would send the Reapers to their graves, one day.

If there was any hope of him and Javik coming to an understanding, then the rest of the Normandys' crew, the people that Javik had come to respect, would be needed to convince him. Because, once the Reapers made their "debut", The Shepard knew that he would need the galaxy to _understand_ the full extent of the situation. And to do that- to keep the Collectors from going ballistic… he had the feeling that Commander Shepards' teammates would have to understand the situation beforehand. They were honored as heroes- if they gave their testimony and all supported the Reapers as a benevolent entity… it would definitely help…

* * *

Yes, there would have been many who criticized Commander Shepard for his decision in becoming the Reapers' master. But his nothing for it were nothing but pure.

For, you see, towards the end of the Reaper War Commander Shepard had been plagued by nightmares and doubts. His ever-generous and compassionate nature were causing him to question his own adequacy- his own fallibility. The Commander had lost _too many_ friends- he'd watched too many people die- often times, people he'd cared about. After hearing countless casualty reports, the recurring dreams about that child from Earth had been the last straw. By the time the Battle for Earth had come, John was _sick_ of everyone dying- he was _sick and tired_ of his own sheer, inexplicable, _inability_ to save everyone he could- to keep the promise and oath he'd taken when he joined the Alliance! He'd sworn that, for every friend he'd lost, he would make ten Reapers _pay_ \- and _double that_ for anyone that had the _gall_ to try and stop him!

… but when he'd finally gotten to the Citadel, when Beta had shown and given him that choice… he'd recognized how serious- how _important_ that the moment was. Commander Shepard, for one of the only times in his life, had been forced to rethink himself.

It had taken him a full ten minutes to make his decision, before Solution prompted that time was of the essence…

When Shepard finally chose Control, he hadn't been thinking about himself. His wants, his desires, his feelings- they didn't matter. No. He'd been thinking about his friends - the people who had become his adoptive family -, he'd been thinking about what they would all say about this situation. He thought about what was best for Humanity, for the Citadel, for the galaxy. He'd thought about all of the people he'd lost- Thane, Mordin, Legion- Hell, even Jenkins, all people who had given their lives for the sake of saving others. He thought about all of the _good_ he could do with the Reapers at his back. He saw Control as his chance to make sure that _nobody_ would have to sacrifice themselves _ever again_! As the ultimate opportunity to protect and help his friends. He saw it as his best and last hope of living up to the Alliances' ideals of being able to save innocents. To become the Reapers master, in order to be the _One_ who could (actually) _save_ the _Many_.

He was now The Shepard. His goal would be protect and sustain- to give everyone a future, and to make sure that all had a voice in deciding that future. To be the force that would _beat down_ any galactic threats to peace. To be the ultimate vanguard of the destruction and pacification of those who would cause chaos, misery, or death. He could now be the guardian of galactic stability. The Reapers would be the extensions of Commander Shepards' will, thoughts, and soul.

He wouldn't be a leader. He wouldn't be an overlord or a tyrant. He hated politics after all. No, to do that would just be plain irresponsible.

The Reapers were to simply be a force of good, of justice, of protection.

He… was The Shepard of the Reapers… and he could finally be the one who could save the many…

* * *

 **And there you have it! I tried to craft this in a way that would give others a way to create truly interesting and tense situations- a way that would give other writers the ability to have everything fleshed out in a manner that would provide perfect opportunities for conflict and dynamic characters.**

 **By the way, the "Raloi" are canon- you can look it up. People seem to want to depict them as being tall, lanky, and four-armed, with feathers covering them from head to toe, digitigrade and bird-like legs, as well as feathery tails, and the two "primary" arms being wings. Lightweight, but strong bones, and hooked beaks. Among males you'd find bony head crests and vivid colorations in the feathers.**

 **By the way, on an entirely different note, for anyone who'd care: go and look up a lyric-video for the song "It's Not My Time" by 3 Doors Down. I'd swear that, if I didn't know any better, the song was outright _based_ on Mass Effect 2. Seriously.**

 **Keelah'Salei, my friends. And a good day to you…**


	2. The Prothe-… The Collectors

**This second Oneshot is here to give, both, a Codex document on Collectors, and a much closer look at them. Just to give a framework for the Collector race the way I believe they'd turn out.**

* * *

 _ **The Prothe-… The Collectors.**_

...

 **Codex Entry/Collectors:**

 **Nomenclature: Collectors- AKA: Arthropans- AKA: Telestrati (compound word formed from Greek words "téleio" and "stratióti", meaning "perfect-soldier").**

 **Latin Name: "Retorta Reliquiae" (Twisted Remnant).**

 **Homeworld: Citadel- formerly Darkspace.**

 **Government: Nonexistent.**

 **Culture: Nonexistent.**

 **Biology: Arthropod-Insectile/Genetically Altered.**

...

 **History:**

Also sometimes called "Arthropans" due to the term "Collector" being of potential political incorrectness, until 2186-2187 this species of insectoid bipeds (often described as "person-sized, winged beetles") was so rarely encountered that most people were liable to believe them a myth. It wasn't until the early months of the year 2187, nearly two and half years ago, that the Collectors were officially regarded as a real sentient race. The reason for this was mostly due to the majority of the Collector population inhabiting Darkspace alongside the Reapers - with only a fraction of them stationed inside a massive space station in the galactic core - for the past 50,000 years.

This resulted in Collectors being extremely difficult to track and find, especially with the only way to the galactic core being the Omega 4 Relay- a Relay through which no ship had ever returned from a trip through. Thus, no one knew where the Omega 4 could possibly lead to. Theories as to why no ship would ever come back through the Relay included a black hole being present on the other side, the Collectors destroying any vessel to come through, or that there was some sort of earthly paradise on the other end. It wasn't until Commander Shepard, the first Human Spectre, led a suicide mission into the Omega 4 Relay, that it was discovered that a specialized IFF was required to get through the Relay safely, as any vessel that didn't possess this "Reaper IFF" was quickly obliterated by the countless supernovas and black holes which the galactic core was completely made up of.

Before the Spectres' mission through the Omega 4, the most anyone knew of the Collectors was that they operated in the Terminus Systems and that they always traded with slavers and pirates. Said transactions usually consisted of useful technology from the Collectors, in exchange for live subjects of various races. These living bartering chips were almost always members of different species who possessed rare genetic defects and numbered in the dozens. Most people assumed that the Collectors took and used these captives for the purpose of experimentation.

Commander Shepards' mission into the galactic core, as well as his campaign against the Collectors, revealed that the Collectors are, in reality, the indoctrinated, genetically altered, and cloned descendants of the long-dead, Protheans. This confirmed that the Collectors were mindless thralls under the Reapers' control- which explained why they'd been abducting the populations of hundreds of Human colonies for the duration of the two years previous. Commander Shepards' mission gave insight as to the Reaper form of reproduction, the nature of the Collector species, and the reason for their suspicious dealings with the Terminus; and resulted in the destruction of the Collector Base in the galactic core- leaving the Milky Way devoid of them.

It wasn't until the Reaper War that the _rest_ of the Collectors in Darkspace returned to the galaxy in full force. They were used by the Reapers as the "mop-up crew" on occupied worlds- ground forces that would root out any bunkered down or hiding organics. It was also during the Reaper War that it was discovered that the Collectors could be _freed_ from Reaper control and given back sentience. It was due to the Leviathans. Their joining of the war-effort was what allowed them to sever Harbingers' connection to any Collector ground forces. Most of the Arthropans in question would perish in this process, but those that survived would be "Awakened", and would thus join the rest of the galaxy in the Reaper War.

A month following "The Pulse/The Retreat", an event which ended the Reaper War instantly, hundreds of Collector "Black Arks" arrived at Earth. When military forces intercepted and boarded the ships, they found all of them to be full of non-hostile Awakened Collectors. This find resulted in "The Integration"- a mass migration of the Collectors to the Citadel. The decision was poorly thought-out and rushed, leaving the understaffed Citadel-Secuirty with their hands full as they struggled to question and process all 1.9 million Collector immigrants. In the end, after much tribulation and bureaucracy the Awakened Collectors were accepted into the galactic community as a client race to the Turians, due to Collectors being recognized as the perfect shock troopers and powerful Biotic fighters. As to how and why so many Awakened Collectors had suddenly showed up was difficult to ascertain. The most any one Collector knew was that they'd been released from indoctrination and "woken up" on their respective Black Arks on a course for Earth.

Ever since, the Collectors have become productive inhabitants of the Citadel- most becoming C-Sec Officers in the Investigation, Special Response, and Patrol divisions of Citadel Security Services, or as soldiers in the Turian military.

...

 **Culture/Government/Interspecies Interaction:**

One won't find much in the way of art, philosophy, or tradition when it comes to Arthropan culture. Most of any "custom" comes in the form of their behavior toward each of their own kind, as well as other species. Every Collectors' personality is made up of one of two extremes: they're always either the hardest workers, or the most jobless. The most calm, or the most temperamental. The most accepting, or the most excluding. The most social, or the most introverted. Over a third of the entire Collector population is jobless and homeless- though none of them seem to be at all bothered by it, nor do any of them seem particularly motivated to rectify their situation.

If asked why, a Collector Vagrant would simply say that they see no reason to do much of anything. This is part of a stereotype which is actually true, somewhat- a Collector will always fall into one of two categories: the workaholics, or the apathetics. They always either throw themselves into their work, or they simply stagnate. Individuals who lean toward the latter are often said to act depressed, subdued, or quiet. This is part of another fact about them, the Collectors are so homogenized and consistent throughout, that there are rarely any outliers from known groups. Though this can make Collectors slightly predictable, their uniformity has advantages.

The unity and bonds between Collectors are almost stronger than those among Quarians. Arthropans will often refer to others of their species as "brother" or "sister". Two individuals may not necessarily like or know each other, but there's definitely a very prominent amount of _understanding_ between all Collectors, regardless. This is most likely caused by the fact that every Collector has been through the same ordeal- they're all in the same boat and situation. A lot of the time, groups of Telestrati who know one another will often form close-knit "families/Packs/prides". The relationships between these persons are very similar and comparable to those amongst siblings. In essence, the Collector race is made up of thousands of small groups who share opinions, conditions, problems, or skills. "If you wrong _one_ Collector, you're _literally_ wronging all of their friends".

This leads to the Collector government- or lack thereof. They don't _have_ a formal government structure. The most organized they ever get, are the common and weekly "meetings" called "Congregations" that the Arthropans' hold among their race. All over the Citadel, thousands of groups of Collectors all meet and accumulate in various areas. _All_ Collectors. In these meetings the Arthropans will, more or less, "compare notes and opinions", then exchange these amongst the other Congregations. After they do so, whether or not any kind of decision is made usually depends on whether or not there's any actual problem. But, most of the time, Congregations simply keep each other "posted". Individuals who have problems will usually keep these grievances to themselves, or simply share their issues among their Pack. Non-Collectors who stumble upon these Congregations will either be displaced by the participants, or simply allowed to spectate. Congregations are often said to be "quiet, generally logical, and inclusive".

When dealing with other species, most Collectors tend to act with appropriate professionalism, straightforwardness, and politeness. Either that or they merely avoid members of other races, or ignore them as they go about their business. A Collector will seem to treat any Turians, Humans, Krogan, and Elcor with utmost respect and courteousness. To Drell, Salarians, Volus, Quarians, and Raloi, an Arthropan will be able to act with an agreeable amount of politeness- at least, until any real disagreement is made known. However, to the Asari and Hanar, Collectors will seem to try to avoid individuals of these races whenever possible. _If_ forced to interact with them, they'll be polite for as long as their temperaments can endure. When around Geth, Batarians, or Vorcha, an Telestrati will appear to become subtly defensive. Most of these reactions to certain races come from an intrinsic preference towards strength and discipline. This doesn't mean that a Collector will automatically like or dislike a person purely based on those few conceptions; they simply serve as a "starting point" or "default policy" that Collectors use when dealing with any individual of any race. A Collector will always allow every person the benefit of the doubt.

In any case, casual conversation is easy to pull off for Collectors. But friendship with those outside of their species is uncommon. Either, conditions are incongruent with companionship, or it "just doesn't work". An Arthropan will almost never "cut loose", "open up", or "share" when they're not amongst their own Pack. That said, it should be noted that Collectors will often scorn the incompetent, stupid, or immature. None of this is to say that Collectors are incapable of friendliness or are racist. To the contrary, almost every Collector you meet will be _very_ well informed and culturally knowledgable. In fact, an Arthropan will often imitate the body language of different species (when appropriate) purely for the benefit of others- since _they_ lack facial expression. It doesn't help that Collector voices are deep, baritone, resonating, and confusingly (yet deceptively) monotone- making it often difficult to discern the tone or inflection when a Collector speaks.

Overall, Collectors only ever speak or act when they deem it necessary- they're extremely selective and pedantic when it comes to whom they speak to, as well as how they act, and what they do. If forced into a situation where they have to communicate, a Collector will be as formal as verbally possible. If a Collector you've never held a particularly long conversation with suddenly becomes a lot more talkative when around you and your associates, it probably means that they've deemed you "worth their time/attention/breath".

This practice results in the concept of "awkwardness" being almost alien when associated with Collectors. Collectors are almost never subjected to any kind of meekness or shame- social faux pas never occur around or because of them.

Other than their "rivalry" with the Asari, the Collectors are probably the most agreeable and reasonable people you'll ever meet- _if_ you can garner their trust and interest. If not, then they'll either stay out of your way, or be, at least, polite.

The aforementioned bad blood between the Asari and Collectors isn't _just_ the result of the "Collector/Asari Skirmishes", and the Asari races' expulsion from the Council. Before the crimes of the Asari race were made known to the galaxy, any Arthropan would have openly admitted that they didn't like the Asari very much. Mostly, this stems from the history between the Protheans and early, primitive Asari. The Protheans had believed that the Asari would rule the next cycle with an iron fist- they theorized that, with the correct guidance, the Asari could go on to defeat the Reapers and transcend even the Protheans _themselves_ in terms of military might and disciplined doctrine. So, the Protheans gave them the gift of being naturally Biotic. It also wouldn't be insane to believe that the Asari have the ability of Melding due tot he Protheans, because of how oddly similar the Protheans' sense of "Bio-Markers" is.

But now that the Awakened Collectors have regained their sentience after 50,000 years, they have found their expectations for the Asari left wanting. After the multiple gifts that were given to the natives of Thessia, even with all of the support they were garnered, they had still not risen up to the level that the Protheans had predicted them to be at. Most Collectors will say that the Asari, and all of their "underserved arrogance", are a joke. This was only made worse when the Shadow Broker gave the Collector Congregations information and evidence that proved the Asari had been breaking their own laws for centuries, and hoarding technology that rightfully belonged to them.

Of course… unless directly asked for their opinion, no Collector would have ever said so aloud. Despite all of that, however, if you asked a friendly Arthropan their opinion of the Asari, most will say that they _don't hate_ the latter. If anything, a Collector would label their feelings toward Asari in general as "disappointment", "derision", and/or "disdain".

...

 **Biology:**

The Collector physiology is remarkable, by most scientific standards. Due to being indoctrinated by the Reapers, Harbinger has spent the last fifty thousand years _literally_ engineering the Collectors to be the perfect soldiers. Every aspect of their bodies was _designed_ for combat. Because their artificial evolution was the product of the will of a sentient being, the Collectors' bodies and minds are almost eerily suited for the task they were made for.

Every present-day Collector is the genetically engineered, and cloned descendant of the indoctrinated Prothean they were born from. As such, many of the mannerisms and memories of their Prothean ancestors still inhabit the minds and subconsciousnesses of the Arthropans. Some Collectors were created from Protheans that lived long before the previous cycles' Reaper invasion; and others are spawned from Prothean soldiers who fought the Reapers.

Though this gives a lot of Collectors ancient and useful knowledge, it also results in personal and psychological… "complications". A Collector - a General - once said that, sometimes, individuals among his people had doubts- concerns. They would debate within themselves, and within their Pack, as to _what_ they were. As to _who_ they used to be, who they _are_ , and who they _should_ be, _now_. Whether they should go back to the old Prothean methods and ways, or to let go of the old and to focus on the here and now- to make new persons out of themselves. To be Prothean… or to be Arthropan. It's an internal struggle that _every_ Collector has to deal with and resolve. Most never get that far- most have just distracted themselves in superficial jobs. But some have actually found peace in either holding on to their inner Prothean, or in letting go and fully accepting their new existence as Collectors.

It is this complication that often makes the issue of an individual Collector's name rather awkward. Some have one-word, ambiguous designations that appear to make little sense; some have three-word, latin-sounding names. Often times a Collector will simply take the name of the Prothean they descended from, and reverse it.

In any case, the Collector race is divided into five separate "breeds". This is most likely a result of Harbinger compartmentalizing the Collectors into different groups, and then modifying each group to suit a specific purpose. The five breeds are as follows: Troopers, Captains, Avengers, Praetorians, and Generals. Like with the species name as a whole, some in galactic society have chosen to use different nomenclatures when in reference to each breed- due to the terms being potentially politically incorrect and/or offensive. Though, no Collector has ever expressed any dislike for any term.

Each Breed, overall, shares most of the same traits, but with a few key differences…

 **Trooper (AKA: Criterian)** : The Trooper, also known as a Criterian (the word drawn from "criterion"), is the most common and most often encountered Breed of Telestrati. They are considered the "baseline", or "basis" for the appearance and qualities of the four other Collector Breeds. The Collectors have been described as being "weaponized Protheans", or "living swiss-army-knives"- and for good reason. From what can be observed from Javik, The Last Prothean, the scientific community has a fairly good idea of just how different the Collectors are.

Troopers, like all Collectors, have a tough, thick, bullet resistant exoskeleton that serves as their outermost layer of skin- as well as an internal endoskeleton for additional flexibility, support, and endurance. Yet, at the same time, they possess a leathery, semi-pliable epidermis that is half-hidden between their joints. This second skin, underneath the exoskeletal armor, seems to serve the purpose of providing additional durability, as well as allowing Collectors a full, and impressive range of motion. Arthropods aren't usually particularly limber in the animal world- their exoskeletons, while useful as armor, will crack or snap if bent too far. This doesn't seem to be a problem for Collectors. However, to call a Telestrati "invulnerable" would be incorrect. Enough bullets will _still_ punch through their natural armor (especially if the bullets are modded, such as with incendiary rounds). An explosion will kill them just as quick, and they'll be just as injured by a knife by any other organic… provided said knife struck in the right spot…

What is odd about the skin is that, somehow, for some reason, the skin and exoskeletal pigment in Collectors changed when they were released from Reaper control. After their (unexplained) return to a sentient existence, their skin changed color. Some Arthropans gained stripes, others now have various patterns all over their bodies, and some have just changed color completely. Every Collector has a unique skin coloration and patterning, making them easy to point out. How and why this happened is unknown- what is known is that every Awakened Collector gained new colors while molting.

The molting process for Collectors is, strangely, not required for if they "outgrow" their own "shell" (which never occurs, in the first place). Instead, a Collector will molt their exoskeleton once every month. It appears to be for the purpose of repairing damage in the exoskeletal armor. For example, a Collector with a bullet wound would only have to wait for their next molt for the injury to be completely repaired. _How_ molting occurs is unexplained. Some have theorized that there is a fixed amount of "stem cells" stored underneath the exoskeleton.

The point, is that, after their release from Reaper control, the next molt that every Collector went through resulted in their skin pigment changing in varied and unpredictable ways.

Under the skin-layer, the first thing one would see is a solid, thick wall of muscle. A _lot_ of muscle.  Troopers have extremely well developed ligaments and twitch muscles, and do not posses a single _ounce_ of excess fat. It has been deemed medically impossible for a Collector to become overweight, _or_ for them to lose muscle mass. A  Trooper is about twice as physically strong as the average Turian.

This comes from their digestive system. Collectors eat through spear-like proboscises which are hidden behind their lower facial plates (said plates are connected to the skull by two, small "mandibular limbs", each on one "cheek", which can both separate from the face and move about freely). Though whatever digestive system they once had has been completely replaced by Reaper technology, Troopers still gain energy and sustenance through consuming organic material. This digestive system is extremely efficient - to the point of absurdity - and can break down _any_ organic matter into fuel. No "waste" product is created, and any _inedible_ material is regurgitated as a thick paste back through the proboscis.

Additionally, Telestrati only need to eat a single meal every week, since their bodies consume much less calories with each action than other organics. This hyper-efficent digestive system is most likely a result of Harbinger striving to make the Collectors as self-sufficient as physically possible.

Troopers have digitigrade leg structures (also called "dog-legged"), designed for increased speed and agility- as opposed to the usual plantigrade seen in Protheans, like Javik.

Collector bones are, surprisingly, yet unsurprisingly, made of metal. A very durable, unknown, "Reaper" metal. This makes the Arthropans immune to the condition of a "broken/fractured bone".

All of this leads to the fact that a Trooper can be run over by a slow moving skycar, stand right back up, and be completely fine.

As can be clearly observed on the Citadel, most Collectors possess four, translucent, triangular wings which are usually concealed behind their shoulder blades. There are two primary, or "fore-wings", which are larger and are placed up higher than the other two, smaller, tertiary wings. The fore-wings provide speed, propulsion, and lift, while the tertiary wings provide maneuvering, stability, and turning. With these wings able to flap as fast as an Earth hummingbird's, a Collector can achieve sustained flight for as long as they have the energy to uphold it. Their top speed can be up to 45 miles per hour (72 km/h, or 66 ft/s), and if a Trooper _only_ uses their fore-wings, they're able to quickly "dash" in any direction. The wings are one of the few things, other than skin pigment, affected by the "Post-Release Molt". While under Reaper influence, every Telestratis' wings were proportionally small, triangular-shaped, and colored a bright, vivid red. After the "P-RM", a Collectors' wings became collectively larger, and often changed in various miscellaneous ways. In some cases, their wings grew to the proportional size of a dragonflys', and thus can fly faster, and for longer time periods. Or, their wings simply change color. Or both. It's all very unpredictable.

Collectors breathe and smell out of small holes in their backs- just as insects breathe through airways in their abdomens. Said sense of smell is continuous and doesn't require a breath to draw in scent particles. Troopers have a sense of smell roughly as acute as an Earth canines'.

While in the realm of senses, Telestrati eyes (there being four of them) are extremely sensitive to light and movement, and are able to see through a military grade Tactical Cloak- just as Protheans can.

Any sense of taste cannot be determined, but it is assumed that Collectors don't have one, due to their proboscises having no tastebuds. Although, some Telestrati have been known to violently and abruptly spit out certain foods, saying that it "burned" the inside of their facial plates. In these cases, the food was discovered to be poisoned or prepared poorly. So, it can be concluded that, while they have no sense of taste, they'll still be able to tell when something is toxic. This has led, at least, _one_ Collector into a job of levo-food-tasting.

Collector auditory senses appear to be no more sensitive than a Humans', yet they're able to hear some infra/ultrasonic frequencies.

One of the most iconic traits shared among the five Breeds are organic arm-blades. The exoskeleton in the forearms of most Collectors is able to shift part into two separated pieces with the tense of a muscle, allowing a two foot long, retractable blade to extend from it. Said blade is thin, double-edged, and curves inward. Given a Troopers' physical strength, it would be reasonable to think that they could do a grievous amount of damage with these organic melee weapons.

On the topic of gender and reproduction… Troopers don't have either. In fact, Collectors don't seem to possess _any_ kind of sex drive or ability to be aroused- their bodies have no testosterone/estrogen or hormonal glands (nor do they have any alien equivalent). From the corpses examined from the Reaper War, it would appear that Collectors don't seem to have any kind of reproductive organs. Collectors are utterly ambiguous in this regard. Granted, if asked, a Collector would say that they "feel" to be a certain gender, most likely derived from the sex of the Prothean that a Collector descended from. Either way, it would seem that Harbinger didn't have need for the Collectors to reproduce by themselves, since they would all just be cloned near the end of their lives, anyway. This presents a somewhat big problem, since the  Collectors have no foreseeable way to increase their numbers, without cloning. This is only made worse by the fact that no one yet knows how long a Collectors' life span is. Scientists have considered naming the Collector race "actively extinct".

Another capability unique to the Telestrati race is that of "Biological-Marker Reading", or "Bio-Marking". Bio-Marking is a trait passed down from their Prothean ancestors that wasn't weeded out or removed by Harbinger. It is similar to the idea of psychometry, and allows any Telestrati to learn a foreign language, pick up a chemical trail, explain a complicated idea, or even have a conversation instantaneously, all with a single physical touch. This makes Inner-Ear Translators unnecessary, and it allows Arthropans to be extremely adept at analyzing crime scenes.

The final notable trait that is shared between most Breeds, would be Biotics. The Biotic potential in all Collectors was fully unlocked upon their release from Reaper control. Prior to their return to sapience, the only way a Trooper could be able to use Biotics was if Harbinger assumed direct control of them through a Collector General. This was caused by implants in the cerebellum area of the brain which would cause the Biotic power within a Trooper to be unleashed whenever a "signal" from a General was sent to it. But ever since the Collectors' Awakening, they became capable of using the same devastating Biotic attacks used by Harbinger. Said Biotics appear to be a green/turquoise color, and have the same incendiary affect on organics, able to set a target on fire.

 **Captain (AKA:  Alpha)**: The second Breed of Arthropan, Captains, are the second most commonly encountered. They're easily recognizable by their antennae-like "brow-prongs" (to serve what purpose, no one is sure), altered head shape, and six eyes. They've been described as "upgraded Troopers"- an assessment that may not be entirely inaccurate…

Captains, in general, have been found to be taller, stronger, have thicker exoskeletons, longer and sharper arm blades, larger wings, faster reflexes, more powerful Biotics, and more acute senses than their Trooper brothers. They also possess an extra pair of eyes. Then again, these advantages are always either marginal or minor, in most cases, when put to the test. On the mental level, Alphas seem to have a more tactical way of thinking and are almost as tenacious as some of the more determined Humans- known to find clever or quick solutions to demanding problems while others would be overwhelmed or afraid in the same situations. All of this would indicate that the Captains were created to be the leaders of squads- made to direct Criterians in small-scale skirmish situations.

 **Avenger** : The third - and third most common - Breed are the Avengers. This Breed only exists due to the intervention of the Leviathans. Collectors who were forcefully severed from Reaper control by the Leviathans during the Reaper War were transformed into Avengers. How an Awakening triggered by a Leviathan would result in an Avenger is unclear- and the Leviathans themselves are not available to be questioned on the matter.

The Avengers were the first of the Collectors to regain sentience, and were the first to join in the fight against the Reapers- hence their name. Due to Alphas being mentally "tougher" than their Criterian brothers, most Avengers resemble Captains\- minus a pair of shed, and dropped, brow-prongs

They are considered to be the "Biotic Adepts of the Arthropans". This comes from the fact that their Biotics are, in fact, exponentially more powerful than a Captains', as well as much more "flexible". It's no secret that a Biotic of any species appears to have a finite amount of Biotic Techniques they're able to learn- said amount depends on the individuals' skill, as well as species. Other Collector Breeds appear unable to learn (or relearn) the ancient, lost Biotic Techniques that were unique to the Protheans (such as Dark Sphere, Dark Channel, and Vengeful Strike)- thus they usually try to supplement their Biotic abilities by acquiring modern Biotic Techniques- in addition to the attacks they can use due to Harbinger.

But even the most Biotically pathetic Avenger can use said Techniques with an ease that's as natural as breathing. In addition to that, they seem to be able to add at least twice as many new Biotic abilities to their skill set- some have even become more Biotically flexible than many Asari Matriarchs.

Avengers have even been able to create and use completely new Techniques. They've been known to use their Biotics to manipulate groups of Seeker Swarms into acting as living shields, or as being an odd facsimile for small projectiles.

An odd attribute that Avengers have been known to display, is a rage induced state (nicknamed "Ascension Mode" by the Collectors themselves) in which their Biotic and physical attacks become temporarily stronger- sometimes to the point of absurdity. The drawback to the advantage in combat that this gives, is that the fluctuating and conflicting Biotic fields generated from Ascension Mode appear to weaken, or soften an Avenger Telestratis' exoskeleton, as well as their Biotic barriers- resulting in them being more vulnerable. Not that that ever really ends up mattering…

 **Praetorian** : The fourth - and second rarest - Breed are the Praetorians. They mostly resemble Troopers in appearance, the major difference being that they're almost two times as large- typically being around twelve feet tall, some being known to reach fifteen. They're much bulkier- their arms and legs are trunk-like, proportionally thicker and longer, looking more like the heavily armored joints of a YMIR mech, than like actual organic limbs. This results in many advantages, and disadvantages. For one, Praetorians have exoskeletons (being three inches thick in some places) that allow them to completely shrug off most small arms fire- sometimes even being able to endure an explosion or ground-to-ground missile attacks. Their physical strength is impressive, most Praetorians having the ability to toss around a Krogan with moderate effort. Their Biotic barriers are also noticeably improved- though not by much. Their size and strength give them the ability to wield certain weapons portably, which would normally be too heavy for other organics (uprooted "mounted machine guns" being one example), and have garnered them a reputation of being excellent club bouncers, body guards, heavy weapons specialists, and C-Sec Riot Troopers. Naturally, their size and strength garner them much larger and thicker arm-blades. The two weapons looking more like giant scythes, than swords.

This is where the positives end. Their considerable size and weight (most Praetorians weighing in around half a metric ton) means that they are much less nimble, or agile. They're unable to make sharp turns while running, and their leg structures are, surprisingly, plantigrade, like a Humans'- a modification made by Harbinger in the interest of providing extra support for their bulk. They completely lack wings, seeing as though flight would not be viable. However, Praetorians _are_ strangely adept at leaping upwards, as well as climbing steep surfaces.

The Praetorians were most likely created by Harbinger for the purpose of assisting and protecting Generals, hence their name.

 **General (AKA:  Counsellor)**: Troopers (Criterians) are common place, and Captains (Alphas) are half as often encountered. For every fifty Troopers there are five Avengers, and for every hundred there's three Praetorians. Lastly… there are only five registered Telestrati Generals in existence, including the Councilor, Cytotax Destrin Etrigann. They are the rarest Collectors, and ones' chances of meeting one are less likely than those of winning the galactic lottery.

Generals are the most insectile and animalistic in appearance compared to the other Breeds. They stand on four stilt-like legs, at around eighteen feet tall. Counsellors also have four arms, two large, two small, and are tipped with twin scythe-like blades that form crab-like claws instead of hands.

All other details pertaining to their physiology are only guessed at, since no corpses have ever been found or examined, and because no Generals have ever undergone any kind of study. This has less to do with the Counsellors' opinions about being examined, and more to do with the fact that they're, more or less, doted on by all other Arthropan Breeds. They seem to be highly respected and coveted by their brethren- for exactly what reason, no one knows. The Collector races' ability to keep the Generals hidden and unfindable is almost on par with how ambiguous the _Keepers_ have kept their _own_ activities.

* * *

 **To those of you who have watched the animated film "Mass Effect: Paragon Lost", you will note that the idea of "Praetorians" is not completely unfounded.**


End file.
